Interestingly enough, the Napsbury Hospital staff began in the 1960s to address her as Francoise d'Orleans. They even changed the name in her records.

"All this is queer, decidedly queer," Moore says in a voice both informed and perplexed. "You know you've got a mind working which is not like ours." She had special talents, but then she lacked things as well, he adds. "You can't help reading that diary without being enthralled. It's delightful, and yet -- you know there's something missing. What's missing is reality."

The author of The Story of Opal died at Napsbury Hospital in 1992, at the age of 94. She is buried in Highgate Cemetary, under the name Francoise Marie de Bourbon-Orleans -- and Opal Whiteley.